From Seasons to Systems: Rethinking How Uganda Finances Agriculture.

By Annette Kiconco

At the start of every planting season, thousands of Ugandan farmers confront the same calculation: when to plant, how much to invest, and whether to absorb risk without guaranteed markets. These decisions are intensely practical, yet their consequences shape household incomes, national food security and, ultimately, the performance of Uganda’s economy.

Agriculture remains the backbone of Uganda’s economy, contributing nearly a quarter of GDP and employing over 70 percent of the population, with millions more connected through processing, logistics, trade and services. Yet despite this centrality, the sector continues to struggle with volatility, informality and underinvestment. The challenge is not effort; it is structure.

Uganda’s agricultural transformation will be driven by systems that deliberately align capability, finance, exposure and markets into a single, reinforcing ecosystem.

This is the lesson dfcu Bank has learnt through decades of working alongside farmers, agribusinesses and value-chain actors. Long recognised as an agricultural bank, dfcu’s role extends beyond lending. It is rooted in a conviction that finance performs best when it follows preparedness, and that sustainable growth requires more than access to capital.

Too often, agricultural support remains fragmented: training delivered without market linkage, finance extended without operational readiness, or exposure provided without follow-through. The result is well-intentioned intervention that does not compound into lasting economic value. Farmers remain informal, risk remains high and growth stalls.

Experience shows a different path.

At the centre of dfcu’s approach is deliberate capability building. Through the dfcu Foundation, farmers and small enterprises are prepared to participate meaningfully in formal markets and financial systems before they take on debt. Since 2017, the Foundation has trained over 24,000 farmers and supported more than 1,200 enterprises across agriculture and allied sectors, with women accounting for more than half of all beneficiaries and strong participation by youth-led enterprises.

This capability building is practical by design; participants receive hands-on support in financial literacy, record keeping, governance, production planning, quality standards and market readiness. In priority value chains, tailored tools strengthen commercial discipline and traceability, including the Bean Book for coffee exporters, alongside structured interventions in cocoa, dairy, oilseeds and climate-smart agriculture.

The Foundation’s work is delivered through a strong ecosystem of partners that bring technical expertise, market access and development support. Over the years, the dfcu Foundation has worked with well-established organisations including Rabobank Foundation, Rabo Partnerships, GIZ, GOPA, Outbox, and a range of European Union–supported programmes focused on enterprise development, sustainability and financial inclusion. These partnerships enable the Foundation to embed global best practice while creating credible pathways from capability building into formal markets and finance.

The dfcu Foundation therefore functions as a pipeline into finance, supporting participants to open formal bank accounts, build transaction histories and prepare for credit assessment. As a result, thousands have transitioned from informal activity into structured banking relationships, mobilising financing for working capital, aggregation, processing and value addition.

Access to affordable credit remains a major constraint in the sector. dfcu addresses this through targeted agricultural lending, including loans capped at 12 percent under government-supported programmes such as the Agricultural Credit Facility.

The objective is not just to lend more, but to lend to enterprises that are prepared to absorb and deploy capital productively. Yet even preparedness and finance are insufficient without exposure.

This is where the Best Farmers Programme plays a catalytic role. Launched in 2014 in partnership with Vision Group, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, KLM Airlines and agribusiness partners, the programme was designed to benchmark excellence, give visibility to what works, and expose Ugandan farmers to global best practice.

Each year, 13 outstanding farmers are recognised, drawn from across Uganda’s regions, deliberately ensuring national representation across crop, livestock, value addition and cooperative-based enterprises. Between November 2024 and October 2025, the programme profiled 171 farmers across print, television and radio platforms.

International exposure is a defining pillar of the programme. Each year, 10 outstanding farmers are sponsored for a fully facilitated study visit to the Netherlands, where they visit over 20 agribusinesses spanning dairy, poultry, coffee, apiary, processing and export logistics. These visits are preceded by structured pre-travel training covering business management, pitching and personal development.

In 2024, marking the programme’s 10^th year, value addition became a minimum eligibility requirement for all winners. The same year introduced a cooperatives category, reflecting lessons drawn from Dutch farming models and Uganda’s over 12,000 active agricultural cooperatives, as recognised by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The programme’s influence extends well beyond award winners; between November 2024 and October 2025, 237 Best Farmers stories were published across Vision Group platforms.

Throughout this ecosystem, sustainability is treated as an economic imperative, not a slogan. dfcu finances climate-smart agriculture, supports resilient production systems and participates in green financing initiatives that reduce the cost of capital, expand agricultural insurance and reward sustainable practice.

Crucially, the journey does not end with training, exposure or a single loan. Farmers and agribusinesses are deliberately graduated into long-term banking relationships, building credit histories and accessing tailored financial products that integrate them more deeply into domestic and export markets. This is how informal activity becomes enterprise, and enterprise becomes industry.

By aligning capability, finance, exposure and sustainability into a single ecosystem, dfcu demonstrates that agricultural transformation is not a matter of chance. It is the result of deliberate, long-term choices made in service of Uganda’s development.

The Writer is Annette Kiconco, Chief Retail Banking Officer, dfcu Bank.